The last stage was unique to the previous three. Lexi exited the tunnel into a strange, elongated corridor. Everything previously had felt natural, built from stone and shaped in traditional medieval styles. This felt digital, like a loading program in the Matrix. She stood on a ledge fifteen feet wide from the stone wall behind her to the infinite drop-off before. The floor was polished marble and extended to her left and right indefinitely. It looked infinite, but she knew from the walkthroughs that you found a transparent, impenetrable wall if you walked far enough. It felt like she was a tiny mouse standing on the edge of a mile-long countertop.
The drop-off before was also not technically infinite. Those unfortunate souls who had fallen said a portal 200 feet down instantly transported you 100 feet back up. So, while it felt like you were falling forever, you were instead falling the same 100 feet repeatedly. Those who had been forced to unplug while falling suffered from severe vertigo. It was recommended you take a suicide potion with you. Lexi didn’t have one.
The goal was to jump on the rugs floating out over the expanse before her. Sixty-four carpets hung suspended over nothing, arranged like the squares of a chessboard. The rugs weren’t squares but rectangles, six feet long and three feet wide.
Orthogonally, the rugs were orientated 12 feet apart from center to center, with their long edges parallel to the chasm's edge. Jumping to the first row from the marble floor was only six feet, something any player could do. Jumping between rugs from left to right was also six feet. Leaping toward the far edge was nine feet, which would be tricky for shorter players but still possible.
In her leopard form, Lexi could jump 59 feet from a standstill and 69 with a running start.
To clear the entire chasm to the far ledge was 96 feet. Flying was disabled in this cavern, and every player that had tried a grappling hook, path of ice, or any other way to cheat had been thwarted. The far side was also smooth, polished marble, and nothing would stick to it. You needed to jump from rug to rug and work your way across.
The trick was knowing which rug to jump to. If you jumped on the wrong one, it disappeared, and you fell forever. Each one had an image in the middle. Right now, the symbol looked similar to a US penny, and almost all of the rugs she could see were heads. She couldn’t see the distant row. You needed your operator to help you.
{I count 58 heads,} James reported. He could zoom out and see all the rugs at once, and since he was an AI operator, he could count them instantaneously.
According to the reports she had read, the first number was always large. It had to be. The module couldn’t expect players to jump directly to rug 34 in the middle. It was determined quickly that the numbering started from the far-left rug and worked left to right toward the near side where the player started. The numbers didn’t snake but ended on the right and started up again on the left.
The far-left column was numbered 1, 9, 17, 25, 33, 41, 49, and 57. Rug 58 was in the closest row to Lexi, in the second column from the left.
The druid stored the diamond she had just gained in her inventory, changed back to her leopard form, and strolled to rug 58. She knew that once she jumped to it, all the symbols would change, and James would tell her a new number. She would jump to that rug and then get another number. This would continue until the carpets started to fall away. It happened a minute after landing on the first rug. During the first few attempts, players had ignored the lost rug and would last one or two more rounds before their operator gave them a rug to jump to, they landed there, and fell straight through. At first, the operators were blamed for getting nervous and counting incorrectly, but they recorded their sessions, and you could usually see that they had given the correct answer.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Then, people realized that the rugs that fell away still had symbols. Since you didn’t know if it was heads or tails, you had a 50/50 shot of guessing correctly. No one could survive those odds after two or three rugs disappeared. All someone needed was to get to the second or third row and desperately jump to the far side. It was an 18 or 30-foot jump, and plenty of players had Athletic scores that high, but no one ever made it to the fourth row. But no one had been a leopard and tried it. They had all been elven rogues or monks.
“Are you ready to count?” Lexi asked.
{Ready when you are, dear.}
[https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ADCreHe1vJcj2qXjv457vFFB3JH-GqRvGM6rhbP7BthAyJ2X3TUjvdIsYkBOcORfCfA7x3zwSvrvmaoNKfHTF6yqr2b0RYY_6F9p0xAtp15S-iPWghRV9hi4JmgUHkMfoWt38DlJt2K9JKoYmkvnkqulDgj_=w1079-h934-s-no?authuser=2]
The druid jumped to the first rug, and the symbols changed.
{61,} James said.
Stupid module, she thought.
That was straight sideways and three rugs away. It was within her stand-still jumping ability but well outside most players. She jumped and knew that Gandhi or a vicious script in the module was considering her advanced skill and level.
{57.}
Lexi swore. That was straight back on the other side of the first rug and even further away. She made the jump anyway.
{49.}
That was at least in the right direction, even if it was only one level.
{55.}
Impossible. No one could make that jump, even with a running start. Lexi was getting a sinking feeling the module wasn’t going to let her win. Instead of giving up, she jumped back to the starting ledge, ran along the length of the chessboard, and jumped to the second row.
{47.}
This was ridiculous.
Each jump was either impossible or so easy Kaylee could have done it. Also, this was the sixth number. Most players never got this high. It took a long time to tally 64 items. Sometimes, the players had two or three operators, each counting different areas and adding up the symbols, but it still took close to eight seconds each time.
{41.}
Lexi should have guessed.
It was nearly the entire width of the board. She spun around, took a massive leap toward the starting edge, and landed on the slick marble, almost sliding into the back wall. She turned right, ran hard, and jumped onto the far left rug in the third row.
{40.}
Of course. It sounded close to 41 but was almost as far away as possible. She spun around, leaped back to the marble edge, and ran a reverse course back to the right side of the board. As she did, she saw the first rug she had landed on, 58, disappear.
{It’s started, dear. I can’t guarantee the numbers anymore.}
It didn’t matter; she had already decided 40 would be the last one. It was 30 feet to that rug and then 66 to the far side, just within her running and jumping range. The problem was landing and leaping from a surface three feet wide.
She took a wide running arch toward the chasm's edge, trying to build as much momentum as possible toward the opposite side. She leaped higher than long, trying not to jump too far. Landing on 32 would be a disaster. But she worked the angles perfectly, her front paws touching down just on the near side of rug 40, which was surprisingly firm for a floating carpet.
Her hind legs stretched forward, passing her front paws and finding purchase using almost the entire rug width. She pushed off with all her strength and soared into the air.
The other rugs passed beneath her like dashes on the highway at 100 miles per hour. She made the far edge with several feet to spare, landed on the slick marble, and crashed into the far wall, taking more damage than she wanted.
{That would have been ironic,} James said in his dry tone. {Clearing the rugs only to die by hitting the wall.}
It hadn’t been that much damage, but she cast a healing spell anyway. Lexi regained her upright form, allowing her feet to elongate to get better traction on the slick floor. Her claws weren’t digging in. The exit was in the middle of the infinite room, directly opposite the entrance on the other side. The stone arch wasn’t a cat's head, and nothing could be seen through it as if a black sheet hung from the back side of the opening. Lexi extended her hand into the void, and it disappeared. She felt nothing, no heat or wind. She pulled it back and didn’t see anything wrong with it.
{I don’t detect anything,} James said.
The druid shrugged and walked through the door.